Steven Van Zandt’s current “Soulfire” tour benefits The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation’s TeachRock program, which Dr. Van Zandt established. (He received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree from Rutgers University.) The Foundation creates education materials that use the history of popular music to create engaging, multicultural lesson plans for history, social studies, language arts, music, and science classrooms, all of which are available to educators at NO COST. At each stop of the tour TeachRock hosts free Professional Development Workshops and all teachers that attend receive a complimentary ticket to that evening’s concert.
“Music will forever be humanity’s most effective and consistent source of inspiration and motivation, and, we have learned, music turns out to be our most solid common ground for establishing communication between teachers and students, which is where education begins,” Van Zandt said.
“[Little Steven’s] TeachRock program brings an essential curriculum of music and culture into school and makes it available at no cost to educators,” Bruce Springsteen said while recently inducting Van Zandt into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. “In a time of cutbacks in arts funding, Steve’s programs are keeping kids engaged in the arts, and in school – this is his greatest legacy.”
